Tragedy of D-Day cover-up

NEWLY released film reveals troops rehearsing for the invasion of Normandy with secret landings on Devon beaches - but the authorities hushed up a catastrophic blunder that led to hundreds of them being needlessly killed....

The grey crafts cut through the angry, pitching sea towards the beaches. Inside, men of the 116th US Infantry crouch, as bullets ricochet around. Some are gripped by seasickness, others by terrible fear.

As they near the beaches, the crafts' fronts creak down and the now-soaked men surge forward, bullets still cracking around them.

As they scramble up the sand, whistles suddenly sound and men, standing in the distance, wave coloured flags. It was a sign that the entire landing would have to be repeated. For this was not D-Day, June 6, 1944, but more than a year earlier when rehearsals for the historic landings were being held in picturesque Devon.

On the orders of the Supreme Commander General Dwight D Eisenhower live ammunition was to be used during the trial runs so as "to toughen up the men for the real thing".

Anti-aircraft guns being prepared for D-Day

Now remarkable, once-secret footage taken at the time has been discovered lying forgotten in a National Archive in Baltimore and will soon go on show in Britain for the first time.

Previously, such footage would have been banned from public viewing and only now are details regarding the rehearsals becoming available. More than 100,000 US servicemen practised on beaches at Woolacombe and amid the sand dunes of Braunton Burrows in North Devon.

Few present-day holidaymakers at the beauty spots realised that the area was a vital training ground for Operation Overlord, the invasion of France that would start the liberation of Europe from the grip of the Nazis.

The beaches were chosen because of their similarity to those on the French coast, in particular those code-named Utah and Omaha, where the US assault troops would land. The sand quality, beach gradient and tidal range were similar.

A US army assault training centre was set up in North Devon in July 1943. The beaches around Woolacombe would see much practice by assault troops and anti-tank soldiers and rehearsals for communications, supply and medical teams, while tank crews attempted to coordinate fire with the assault troops.

Large tracts of land were required from local farmers and the US Army had demanded that all villagers in the area be evacuated. But the British Government refused this.

A military "city" was soon constructed by the 112th Engineer Regiment, new drains put in and roads improved, ready for the sudden influx of young soldiers. A headquarters for officers was quickly established at the Woolacombe Bay Hotel.

But the presence of the American troops did not go down well with the locals. More than 3,000 had been given six weeks to leave their homes, farms and businesses. Many would never return.

Nor were the troops universally welcomed and the area, including the cliff used for training, became a nightmare for residents who remained. One man wrote: "The swaggering, boisterous antics of thousands of GIs bewilders Devonians. In the pubs the American soldiers treat English beer and whisky like soda fountain and milk bar drinks."

American gun crew in operation during the D-Day landings

For the men, though, it was hard and arduous work. They constructed dummy enemy positions and concrete pillboxes for practice shooting. Each assault team comprised 30 men, heavily armed with mortars, machine guns, bazookas and flamethrower teams.

However, these D-Day rehearsals were also marked by tragedy. At Woolacombe 12 tank crewmen were killed and others died when their landing craft overturned but matters were far worse at another training ground on Slapton Sands in South Devon.

What happened there was hastily covered up by the American military authorities and only during recent years has this grim wartime secret emerged. It is a harrowing tale of how scores of young soldiers were felled by "friendly fire" on this quiet Devon beach.

The exercise was to last from April 22 to April 30, 1944, on the Slapton beaches. The first practice assaults took place on the morning of April 27 and, by all accounts, were proceeding successfully.

What exactly went wrong is still difficult to pinpoint. But by the end of the day nearly 800 US servicemen lay dead and accounts from observers tell of the sea running red with blood. Dead bodies floated in the surf and soon became piled up on the sand.

The official version was that all the deaths in this D-Day training exercise were caused by a surprise attack by German E-boats. It was claimed that the Germans had left Cherbourg on patrol and spotted a convoy of crafts carrying vehicles and combat engineers.

The Germans opened fire and one transport boat caught alight and was abandoned while another sank shortly after being torpedoed. A third was set on fire but made it back to the shore.

Many of the servicemen drowned in the cold sea while awaiting rescue and others panicked having put on their lifebelts incorrectly.

In other cases, they jumped into the water but the weight of their combat packs flipped them over on to their backs, pulling their heads under water and eventually drowning them. However, the US Army became nervous and reluctant to release any details about what had happened.

The Pentagon has long suppressed the details yet accounts from those present that day show that, as the GIs swarmed ashore, they were scythed down by other US soldiers who had assumed the role, for the exercise, of German defenders. One observer on a nearby vantage point recalled seeing "infantrymen on the beach fall down and remain motionless".

A British observer from the Royal Engineers watched in horror as soldiers streamed from their landing craft and were "mown down like ninepins". He said: "We later found out it was a mistake. They should have been using dummy ammunition but they just carried on shooting."

There has never been any official mention in US army records of bodies ever being found on Slapton Sands and nor has the Pentagon ever commented about there being a friendly fire disaster in the area during the spring of 1944.

But witness statements taken after the war speak of mass graves in the area. Between July and August, 1944, three trains were secretly loaded with the bodies of dead soldiers. The bodies were thought to have been buried in temporary graves until after D-Day itself.

Several local people also reported seeing lorry loads of dead GIs being buried in temporary graves around the village and there was evidence that hundreds of coffin lids were made at a timber yard at that time.

Later a former US serviceman, Harold McAulley, told of dragging dead soldiers from the beaches and helping to bury the corpses of men, their faces black and burnt with oil, in a mass grave.

Even today the Pentagon refuses to believe that a second tragedy may have occurred during the D-Day exercises. They will acknowledge only that there was a sea battle with the German E-boats.

Nor was there any marking of any kind to denote the graves. However, the Pentagon claims that some 450 bodies were never recovered and still lie at the bottom of the sea, not far from Slapton Sands. Although 300 were buried in a mass grave, by 1956 the Pentagon insists that all had been removed to official cemeteries.

Whatever the truth, there was much official embarrassment at the deaths of the US servicemen. The allies were deeply concerned over any possible leaks prior to a real invasion and all survivors were sworn to secrecy by senior officers.

Perhaps the full story of what happened that tragic day will never come out. What is known is that the British heavy cruiser HMS Hawkins is said to have shelled the beach with live ammunition on the orders of General Eisenhower.

British Marines on the ship had recorded in its logbook that the men were being killed by friendly fire. One is quoted: "On the beaches they had a white taped line beyond which the Americans should not cross until the live firing had finished. But the Marines said they were going straight through the white tape line and getting blown up."

The actual invasion of Normandy on D-Day proved a military success.

It surprised Hitler's generals, most of whom had believed the landings would happen in Calais. But the dark secrets that lay behind the D-Day landings have sadly become a mere footnote to history. Warfare claims many victims whose sacrifices are forgotten when set alongside mighty victories.